BBQ on Pulau Hantu Besar

Date: Nov 21, 2015

Trip #8
Weather: Sunny 
Waters: A little choppy (slowing us to below 18 knots at some points)
On board: C, A, J1, J2, N and JY
New gear on board: Weber "Go Anywhere" grill

N and J were our first guests (outside of family) on Little Wanderer today. It was JY's first time on a pleasure craft, and it was the first time on Little Wanderer for J1, newly back from Sydney for the Christmas holidays. 

We headed out for Pulau Hantu, making the bigger island, Besar, our destination this week.  The entrance to the lagoon, like that on Hantu Kechil last week, was a seaweed forest. This time though, C brought the propeller a little off the water and we made it into the lagoon. It was almost noon, and the tide had been at its highest six hours before; although we were a good 50m from the shore, the water was no more than hip deep. 

We dropped anchor, unloaded the boat and made for shore. We shared the space with a group of SIM Outdoor Activities Club people, who were making 'team-building' noises. 

Our new Weber "Go Anywhere" Grill (the gas-powered model), which arrived from Amazon recently, made its debut today. On the menu: four types of sausages, hot dog buns, salsa, lettuce, Angus sirloin steaks, feta-stuffed peppers, olives, two types of corn chips, red grapes, wine and beer. Nope, we don't eat simple. Haha. 

From left: Grapes, salsa which C made, olives and peppers stuffed with feta.
Two types of chips at top right.

But... so much for eating fancy. We had left the bag with the BBQ tongs, paper plates and cutlery as well as oil, salt and pepper in the car. But we weren't going to let missing equipment get in the way of our day. Improvisation was the name of the game, and out came the "tactical box", which had the Rambo knife and pliers. These were used to turn the meats on the grill, which fired up nicely. We used the lids of the plastic boxes for the olives and peppers as plates. No cups? We chugged the wine straight from the bottle. 

The Rambo knife split the hot dog buns nicely. 

Tools from the tactical bag become BBQ implements.

Hot dog assembly in progress.

We didn't bring the condiments, but luckily, our steaks were already
pre-marinaded in olive oil, salt and pepper.

After lunch, there was time to chill, and for N and JY to take a stroll around the island, while C, J1 and J2 waded out to the boat and did some swimming. A, with her camera, went on the breakwater. 

An unusually long wade out to Little Wanderer from the shore.

Pulau Hantu Besar is quite the nature-study spot: 

These were live (and returned to the water after this shot).

We found this type of seaweed entirely filled with liquid (salty, yes, we tasted
 it)!  I Googled this later and found it to be the bubble green seaweed 
(Boergesenia forbesii, allow me my nerd moment). This bunch 
happened to be wedged tight between the valves of a cockle. 

But the island was also a place where a lot of jetsam washed up. When will people stop littering and just keep their trash on board till they get ashore? I'm assuming these washed up, rather than were left behind by previous Pulau Hantu picnickers.  

Fruit juice cartons, bento boxes, soda bottles, cans and, for some reason,
about 20 blue balloons with the logo of the Republic of Singapore Yacht 
Club, all washed ashore.

About an hour after the tide began coming back in at around 2pm, we packed up and headed back to the marina. The boat was washed, and we later chilled in the bistro, watching one of the marina's famous sunsets. 

Sunset on the way back to the marina.

Sunset at the bistro, Raffles Marina.

A note on J1's seasickness: He refused Dramamine because it would hv made him drowsy. He also declined to wear the Sea Band, saying that he preferred keeping his dignity to wearing "voodoo bracelets". He took instead Blackmore's "all-natural" ginger tabs - which failed to stave off some nausea. In the end, a swig of beer while en route seemed to keep the nausea from worsening. Beer, the cure-all.